Doug McAllister/Under the Hood: Minor incident can cause major damage

A couple dropped off their BMW with what seemed to be a minor problem. One of them had run over a rock while dropping a child off at a soccer field and damaged the lower part of the bumper, or so they thought. They did mention that it was making a noise from underneath and it just didn’t feel right.

While performing a thorough investigation of the car, it was clear that there was considerable damage and it was going to get expensive. After a brief discussion with the clients, we recommended their insurance company be contacted because this repair was definitely going to warrant an insurance claim.

The adjuster agreed with our findings and, after some further scrutiny, a few more items were added to the repair list, including a radiator. At the end of the day the total repair cost on this accidental cruise over a rock will be in excess of $8,000.

In addition to the money, the car will be tied up close to two weeks while we wait for parts and some painting to be done. What made this so expensive was the rock tore an ear right off the aluminum sub frame. Not only does the sub frame have to be replaced but so does the active sway bar that connects to that ear.

The moral of this story is, no matter how minor an incident may seem, it is best to get your vehicle checked out. If something is damaged you certainly would want to know about it so you can take appropriate action. Sometimes a little thing like a slide into a curb or a hard pothole hit can do considerable damage to your suspension. In some cases, the fact that something is wrong will be very obvious, but other times the difference in how the car drives will be more subtle.

Accidents happen and our BMW clients did the right thing by getting their vehicle checked out before assuming everything was OK.

Pay attention!

Pay attention to the warning lights on your dash; they’re trying to tell you something.

We had a client come in the other day explaining that she had several warning lights on over the last several days on her Cadillac, but at that moment they were not on. She said the SES (service engine soon), TPMS (tire pressure monitoring sensor) and the low oil light were on randomly. After inspecting the vehicle we noted the following:

타 The oil was 1.5 quarts low, causing the low oil light to go on.

타 One of the tires was low; it had a rim leak, causing the TPMS light to go on.

타 There was a history code for a bad catalytic converter.

The oil level was adjusted and the tire was repaired, resolving both of those issues. After performing some research on the catalytic converter, it was discovered that even though the car has more than 80,000 miles on it, Cadillac is covering the converter on this particular car until 200,000 miles.

Needless to say we have a very happy client because that would have been a very expensive repair. Had our client continued to drive with low oil and a low tire, damage could have been done to the engine and the tire and all three of those could have done some serious damage to the pocketbook.

타 Douglas Automotive is at 312 S. Hager Ave., Barrington, (847) 381-0454, and 7218B Virginia Road, Crystal Lake, (815) 356-0440. For information, visit douglasautomotive.com. Send questions to underthehood@dailyherald.com.